By JONATHAN SNYDER
Ouabache State Park is set to be lit up for the 12th year as the Wonderland of Lights comes to the park.
The tradition started in 2013, when then park manager Scott Crossley found inspiration from light shows in downtown Indianapolis. Seeing the possibility for another fundraiser, he then turned to the Friends of Ouabache Group, a non-profit that helps preserve the park’s facilities, and asked them if they would be interested in helping start the project. The Friends group agreed and promoted the event as a place for businesses and organizations to advertise, a practice that still goes on today.
“It started out … just in the campground,” Friends of Ouabache Co-Chairman Kathy Schwartz said. “There might have been 20 (sites). It was a smaller number than we have now. For comparison, now we have over 50 displays … so it’s growing quite a bit.”
The light show partially began to promote a statue honoring the Civilian Conservation Corps. The statue, dedicated in 2014, partially came to light with Friends member Myra Myrtle’s desire to honor her dad, a former CCC worker.
“My main thing was honoring my dad by getting the CCC guy out there,” Myrtle said. “But Kathy and her group have done amazing work out there. In fact, I don’t think I could nearly have done what they do.”
Originally, the show started as a weekend-only event with park employees physically unplugging the lights when showtime ended. The lights now go every night in December.
During the initial years, 500 cars throughout the month would be considered a success — there’s now an average of 2,500 cars, according to Schwartz.
“There were 511 cars the first two weekends,” Friends member Rocky Myrtle said. “So that’s six days, only 511 cars, and we went out there probably three years after … and ran the gate house one weekend, and it was just lights all the way (down), you could see cars just coming in. You never had any rest.”
While businesses have purchased their own displays, the Friends group has set of their own as well. Over the years, those sets have been upfitted with LED lights and maintained over the years. The Friends group has also expanded the decoration to other areas of the park, such as the fire tower, with fundraising efforts for those lights being extremely successful.
“It took us — it seemed like a long time to raise $21,000,” Rocky said. “They raised $75,000 for the fire tower just like that, just because they thought bigger things than what we did.”
The efforts from both businesses and the community have led to major success in helping the state park secure funding for increasing the lights display, equipment needs and maintaining the park. Myra said that the show has helped give attention to businesses and restaurants from travelers from outside the county.
“It’s got such a hometown feel, that’s what makes us unique,” Schwartz said. “We want to have the reflection of the community in there. And I think that’s what makes us (unique) … they say it’s so peaceful when they drive through our display.”
The Wonderland will first light up on Dec. 6 and carry all the way through to New Year’s Eve.
Admission is $5 per vehicle, with three different light shows at the fire tower, one available Sunday through Monday, the second available Tuesday through Wednesday and the final show available Thursday through Saturday.
jonathan@news-banner.com
